Roughleaf Yellow Loosestrife

Description:

Roughleaf yellow loosestrife is a perennial herb originating from an underground rhizome. The species has a slender stem and may obtain a height of 3 to 6 decimeters with whorls of 3 to 4 leaves, which encircle the stem at intervals (USFWS 2003). The leaves are narrowly ovate, broad near the base, with 3 prominent veins (Weakley 2003). From mid-May through June, its yellow showy flowers develop as terminal racemes and are subtended by bracts much smaller than the leaves. From August through October its fruits develop (Weakly 2002). The leaves are not rough. The common name "roughleaf loosestrife" is a misnomer, apparently based on a mistranslation of the specific epithet, the translator assuming that "asperulifolia" meant "rough-leaved." The epithet actually refers to the perceived similarity of the leaves to those of the European Sweet Woodruff (Asperula odorata) (Weakley 2003). Roughleaf loosestrife species is easily distinguished from the one other similar southeastern species of Lysimachia, (Lysimachia loomisii) Torrey, by its broader, glandular leaves and much larger flowers (USFWS 2003).

Habitat:

Roughleaf yellow loosestrife inhabits grass-shrub ecotones or edges between longleaf pine uplands and pond pine pocosins on moist or seasonally saturated sands and on shallow organic soils overlaying sand (USFWS 2003 and Fort Bragg 2003). The grass-shrub ecotones whre the species is found are those ecotones, which are fire-maintained as are the adjacent plant communities of longleaf pine/scrub oak, pine savanna, flatwoods (NCNHP 2003) sandhill-pocosin ecotones, savanna-pocosin ecotones, streamhead pocosins, high pocosins, and low pocosins (Weakley 2002). Roughleaf yellow loosestrife prefers to grow in areas with full sunlight as it is shade intolerant. It also grows on deep peat soils of Carolina bays and it has been found growing in roadside depressions, firebreaks, seeps, and transmission line rights-of-way (NCNHP 2003). Roughleaf loosestrife has also been found on deep peat in the low shrub community of large Carolina bays (shallow, elliptical, poorly drained depressions of unknown origin) (NCNHP 2003).

Range:

There are sixty-four extant populations of Roughleaf yellow loosestrife, clustered into a few "metapopulations" in small areas of the Coastal Plain of North Carolina (with one site in adjacent South Carolina). These colonies probably include a low number of genetic individuals as the plants are clonal and sexual reproduction rates appear to be poor. There are 16 extirpated populations and the species continues to decline due to destruction of its habitat which is accelerating, especially with fire suppression and recreational, industrial, and residential development. Using prescribed burns as a management tool is often difficult or prohibitively dangerous due to the typically high fuel loads within is shrubby pocosin habitat. Where burning does occur, however, the species appears to be able to rebound vigorously. At one site, a sizeable population appeared only months after a fire went through an area that had previously been thick with 2 m in height shrubs (NatureServe 2003). Rough-leaved loosestrife occurs at 25 sites on Fort Bragg and one site on Camp Mackall. Specific sites range from a few to several thousand stems, with the larger sites located along the dendritic stream systems within the three primary impact areas on Fort Bragg (Fort Bragg 2003).

Roughleaf loosestrife is a species endemic to the coastal plain and sandhills of North Carolina and South Carolina. It is currently known from 35 populations in North Carolina and one in South Carolina. The single extant site in South Carolina is in Richland County. North Carolina's extant populations are in the following counties: Brunswick County (8 populations); Pender County (1 population); Bladen County (1 population); Carteret County (8 populations); Scotland County (3 populations); Cumberland County (5 populations); Onslow County (3 populations); Hoke County (5 populations); and Pamlico County (1 population). Historically, Rough-leaved loosestrife was known from 15 other sites in Brunswick, Pender, Cumberland, Onslow, Beaufort, Columbus, Pamlico, and Richmond counties, North Carolina, and Darlington County, South Carolina. Most of the populations are small, both in area covered and in number of stems (USFWS 2003).